The present invention relates to a device for controlling at least one electric servomotor with high power from a low-voltage network. This device is more especially designed to provide the electric motorization of a heavy turret on a tank.
Very often, the motorization of the turret of a tank is provided by a hydraulic servosystem. Now, in such a system, the losses and heat which result therefrom do not make it possible to use it over long periods such as required for example when firing on the move, i.e. the faculty of firing with sufficient accuracy and so efficiency when the carrier is on the move.
Low or medium voltage electric solutions are also known. The direct use of the low-voltage network present on the tank involves limiting the rated power which, in short, does not make it possible to fire on the move when travelling across country. As for the medium voltage solution, it requires a very powerful and so very bulky converter which it is generally impossible to integrate in a tank. In addition, here again, the available power is in practice not sufficient for firing on the move.
The main object of the present invention is then to overcome these drawbacks and, for this, it provides a device of the above-mentioned type which is characterized essentially in that it comprises, in combination:
a voltage booster converter, PA1 bi-directional chopping amplifier fed by the converter and delivering the current required by the motor to be controlled, which is of the type able to operate as a generator, and PA1 a capacitive type electric energy accumulator inserted between the converter and the amplifier.
In the particular application considered here, the converter feeds simultaneously two amplifiers connected respectively to a motor controlling the lateral deflection axis of the turret and a motor controlling the elevational axis of the weapon carried by the turret.
Thus, through recovering the kinetic energy of the turret and of the weapon in the form of electric energy in the capacitive accumulator, the converter does not need to be very powerful and it is therefore less bulky. In short, there is thus available, in a volume compatible with that available in a tank, of sufficient permanent power for firing on the move under good operating conditions.
Preferably, the converter is a monoquadrant converter of push-pull type, so as to avoid any restitution of energy to the source.
In a particular embodiment of the invention, the voltage delivered by the converter is a medium voltage of about 270 V.
As for the accumulator, it is formed by a battery of parallel connected electrochemical capacitors.
Finally, the electric motor is advantageously of the type with collector and samarium-cobalt permanent magnets.